Tag Archives: 1985

It was a great day for black & white photography.

Fluffy snow had been falling all morning. Central Vermont’s freight arrived in Palmer and quickly organized to continue south.

I followed the train’s steady progress over State Line Hill, then set up in downtown Stafford Springs, Connecticut where I made these photos on Ilford FP4 black & white negative film using my Leica 3A with 50mm lens.

Central Vermont southward freight at Stafford Springs, Connecticut on February 2, 1985.Trailing view of the same train crossing Route 32 in Stafford Springs.

For me this pair of images does a great job of exemplifying my experience with Central Vermont in the mid-1980s when three, four, five, six, and sometimes seven vintage GP9s would work tonnage freights. The sounds of those old diesels still resonates in my memory.

Would these images have be improved by modern color digital photography? Would they survive for 31 years with virtually no attention from me? For that matter, where will these old negatives or the scans be in another 31 years?

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It was 30 years ago today that I made this photograph on the platform at White River Junction, Vermont.

The conductor on Central Vermont freight 447 is waiting for his train to pull forward so that he can get on the caboose.

Exposed with a Leica 3A on black & white film.

That morning T.S. Hoover and I met Ed Beaudette on the platform. Ed supplied us with a line-up, and we made good use of the information. (Thanks Ed!)

After chasing CV 447 north, we returned to White River Junction and followed a southward Boston & Maine freight toward Bellows Falls.

At the end of the day we met George C. Corey at Springfield Union Station (Massachusetts) on the Boston & Albany and photographed the Conrail Office Car Special that was in town for Superintendent E.C. Cross’s retirement.

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It was 30 years ago today, on May 23, 1985, that I exposed this photograph of a Norfolk Southern freight at Atlanta, Georgia. Although the NS merger had occurred a few years earlier, the old Southern image still prevailed.

Exposed on 35mm Kodak black & white film with a Leica 3A fitted with a 50mm Elmar. Notice CocaCola’s hi-rise office in the distance (peaking out over the warehouse, above and right of the locomotive). It was this landmark I was trying to feature. I didn’t have a 90mm lens, which is really what I needed to make this image work.This is a cropped view of the same image to roughly approximate a telephoto view. Thankfully the old Leica lens had razor sharp optics.

I was impressed by the hi-hood GP50s, such as those pictured running long-hood forward. In my book, Southern’s SD45s were even more impressive. The locomotives were clean, sharp looking and well maintained. By contrast, the Seaboard System with its collection of inherited locomotives seemed like a poor sister in tattered clothing.